Farm Program

Feeding, educating and engaging PBSA families and their communities.

Our Principles

Proximity and access to healthy and culturally appropriate food sources.
Families connected to and engaged with food in their community.
Local organizations vested in food security.
Community decision-making and participation in the food system.
Pantries are only a fail-safe; moving away from short term fixes.

Our Impact

We empower Purpose Built Scholars to be change agents in their communities.
Scholars discover the value of creating and participating in their own food systems.
We improve access for PBSA families to healthy, culturally relevant food.

Program Highlights

Culinary and Nutrition Education

Students engage in regular cooking and nutrition lessons using produce from the farm.

Design Workshops

First semester students work with a design coach to learn and apply principles of 3-D design to create structures for the farm.

Project-Based STEAM Learning on the Price Farm

Through project-based learning, students explore health and food security issues facing their community. Students research Black food justice advocates and devise plans to introduce more varieties of fruits and vegetables into their diets.

Connecting With The Community Through Farming

We host groups of volunteers to work on the farm and learn about food justice and food security efforts happening in Atlanta.

Social Emotional Learning on the Farm

Angora rabbits, raised by our very own Farmer Sally, are brought to the school as a reward for students. Exposure to our rabbits increases students' abilities to emotionally self-regulate and react to each other with gentle kindness. Animal therapy has been proven to help participants better cope with health problems, life changes, and mental health difficulties.

Studying Cultural Food

Students interview one another to learn about their individual and shared food traditions.

Growing Community, Education, and Opportunity

Feeding the Community

Our school farms are vibrant and participatory local food systems that address the unequal distribution of healthy food in south Atlanta.

Educating the Next Generation of Farm Entrepreneurs

Curriculum-based, hands-on activities on the farms provide students with agricultural knowledge and experience growing their own food.

Creating a Hub of Engagement That Connects Schools and Community

By connecting local resources and organizations to the farm, our farm program helps boost the local economy.

Our Farm Partners

Atlanta Public Schools partners with Purpose Built Schools Atlanta, a nonprofit organization with extensive expertise in turnaround education, to operate three traditional APS schools in south Atlanta: Slater Elementary School, Price Middle School, and Carver STEAM Academy.

Partner schools are not charter schools. We are traditional APS public schools. Every student who lives in our attendance zone can enroll in our schools. All of our students are APS students and count toward APS’ enrollment goals.

PBSA receives per-pupil funding from APS at the district’s average rate—just as if our schools were operated directly by APS. Without PBSA, the district would still be responsible for investing the same dollars to educate these same students in these same schools.

Learn more about the benefits of partner schools!